The American Guerrillas of Mindanao

Sunday, September 21, 2008

TheAGOM.org

Welcome to the American Guerrillas of Mindanao (AGOM) website. This site has been established to provide a means to put out information on those veterans of the Phillipine campaign of World War II, and in particular those that fought on the island of Mindanao. We will use this site as a platform for news of AGOM events as well as an electronic archive of photos, documents and written histories of the experiences of those veterans.

If you have documents, photos, or any other anything perinent to this effort please send a copy to me at America1@AmericanGuerrillasofMindanao.org or you can mail items to me at: Mark Chapman, 2490 Valley Road, Navarre, FL 32566. Documents will be returned to sender upon request.

You may also have noticed that there are two paths to this website: Point your browser at www.TheAGOM.org or www.AmericanGuerrillasOfMindanao.org.

Sincerely,

Mark D. Chapman
Webmaster

August/September 2008 Newsletter

The annual meeting of the American Guerrillas of Mindanao and the AGOM Descendants Group was held on 8 May 2008, during the annual convention of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor in Louisville, KY. The meeting was called to order at 4:05 pm. AGOMers Luke Campeau and Gerry Chapman called the meeting to order. Frances Campeau and Kay Chapman, Jim Chapman, Marie Vallejo and Ginger and Kent Holmes were also present. The AGOM Descendants Group’s vice president, David Evans, had planned to attend but had to cancel due to press of other business.

Luke, having experienced a few physical setbacks early in the year, expressed happiness at being able to come to Louisville because it gave him and Frances the opportunity to visit with their son Matthew and his family.

We welcomed Gerry and Kay’s son Jim to the meeting while his wife Veronica attended various convention functions to meet and chat with as many ADBC members as possible.

A newcomer to the descendants group who made a special trip to meet the AGOMers was Marie Valllejo. Her father, Saturnino Reyes, was a Filipino/American living in California during WWII who was recruited and subsequently underwent specialized training in Australia’s Camp Tabragalba as part of the Philippine Regional Section of the Allied Intelligence Bureau. He led one of several teams dubbed “mission men” that were infiltrated into Mindanao to mingle with the local populace and gather and report intelligence. Execution of these secret missions was a closely guarded secret and Marie had spent many months at both Carlisle Barracks and the MacArthur Archives researching records for information about her father’s activities on Mindanao, with little success.

During the meeting it was proposed and seconded by AGOMers that The American Guerrillas of Mindanao Descendants Group be designated the official name of the organization and application for 501(c)(3) status be initiated.

The amount in the AGOM treasury was reported at $1,670. (Thanks to donations from Bruce Smith and Marie Vallejo, the total in our treasury now stands at $1,760.)

Other topics of discussion at the meeting included current plans to centralize and organize AGOM documents. Jim Chapman offered to work with his brother Mark, our webmaster, to formulate a plan to digitalize the documents as well.

The meeting adjourned at 5:35 p.m.

The AGOM group enjoyed the amenities of Louisville and participated in ADBC convention activities. The luncheon cruise on the Ohio River aboard the stern wheel steamboat “Spirit of Jefferson” was delightful. Convention attendees were also invited to Churchill Downs for an afternoon of horse racing. The sixth race was dedicated to the ADBC and Luke and Gerry represented AGOM in that group. (Gerry took some great pictures – watch for them on TheAGOM.org website soon.)

The banquet at the end of the convention was an enjoyable affair. Ruth and Debby Stahl (who had taken the opportunity to tour several places of interest around Kentucky) joined us, and also Luke and Fran’s son Matthew, his wife Margie and their children Jarrid, Clara Rose, Gracie and Ely. The monkey-and-banana-tree centerpiece that has become an AGOM tradition graced their table.

“Hello, Hollywood calling – again!!!” Robert Towne, screenwriter and producer (“Chinatown”), is working on a project on Wendell Fertig and his activities as commander of the Tenth Military District. Towne seems determined to make his screenplay as authentic as possible and I provided him with names and phone numbers of AGOMers – he has spoken at length with many of them. I also sent him a copy of a 1941 map of Mindanao to acquaint him with the various locales mentioned in the book, They Fought Alone, by John Keats. It would be great if a movie is produced about Fertig and the true-to-life experiences of AGOMers, who were “they” in They Fought Alone.

Congressional Watch: Currently before our congress is legislation “to require the payment of compensation to members of the Armed Forces and civilian employees of the United States who were forced to perform slave labor by the Imperial Government of Japan or by corporations of Japan during World War II, or the surviving spouses of such members, and for other purposes.” S. 3107, sponsored by Senators Jeff Bingaman and Orrin Hatch, was referred to the Committee of Finance in June. A similar bill, H.R. 6497, sponsored by Representative Darlene Hooley, went to the House Ways and Means Committee in July. Too little, too late???

We have received several responses to our request for names and contact information of AGOM descendants. Keep them coming! Please include email addresses when possible – sending newsletters and other announcements electronically is a great money-saver.

On Monday, September 15, I will be flying to the Philippines for a month-long visit. I had hoped to donate copies of my book, Guerrilla Daughter, to various libraries, local museums and historical societies during this trip, but Kent State University Press has experienced major delays in its publication schedule so the book will not be out until January 2009. In any event, I look forward to an enjoyable vacation and plan to make a return visit in early 2009, books in hand.

Featured Article

Kent Holmes contributed the following article on the history of the Far East Air Force in the Philippines:

On 16 August 2008, the MacArthur Memorial Museum and Foundation in Norfolk sponsored the opening of an exhibit and symposium on the history of the Far East Air Force. The initial session of the symposium focused on the Army Air Forces presence in the Philippines, particularly Clark Field. As former Army Air Corps members of AGOM will recall, in the summer of 1941 the air force in the Philippines had only a minor capability to defend the Commonwealth against future Japanese aggression. In July 1941, recognizing this weakness, Major General Hap Arnold, chief of the newly created U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF), proposed an aircraft reinforcement of the Philippines. The spearhead of this reinforcement had already begun a few weeks earlier when the 19th Bombardment Group deployed with its B-17s to Clark Field from Hickham Field via Midway, Wake, Port Moresby and Darwin. This was a new initiative for the USAAF – deploying its aircraft 10,000 miles from U.S territory. By December 1941 the status of the USAAF reinforcement to the Philippines was as follows:

  35 B-17s
  107 P-40s

When the Japanese attacked U.S. military facilities in the Philippines on 8 December 1941, 277 USAAF aircraft were deployed throughout the Philippines.

A major problem in this deployment to the Philippines was the lack of modern airfields to accommodate these new aircraft, particularly the B-17’s. As AGOM members will recall, the only field on Mindanao capable of handling the B-17’s was the airfield located at Del Monte. This airstrip had to be expanded and upgraded and was not completed until December 1941.

The new commander of the USAAF in the Philippines, General Lewis Brereton, arrived on 3 November 1941. Shortly after Brereton’s arrival, General MacArthur recognized the danger that the new aircraft deployment faced from potential attack. As a result he ordered Brereton to move aircraft, particularly the B-17’s, to Del Monte. This was done, but by early December only two squadrons of these aircraft had been moved, with the remainder still at Clark Field. This question of why so many aircraft remained at Clark was one focus during the symposium. Another issue was Brereton’s request to MacArthur to use the remaining B-17’s at Clark to attack Japanese facilities and bases on Formosa. While the history of this request and a lack of response from MacArthur are somewhat murky, the Japanese air attack on Clark on 8 December resulted in a dramatic destruction of the capability of the USAAF to defend the Philippines after that attack.

There are a lot of unknowns relative to USAAF capabilities to hit the Japanese aircraft presence on Formosa prior to their attack on the Philippines. Did the USAAF have precise information on the Japanese facilities, and could they have been precise in their navigation to these targets? On the other hand there is much to be said regarding this option. The weather conditions on 8 December had delayed the Japanese air attack on the Philippines. Moreover, Japanese air capabilities in Southeast Asia were stretched thin after their surge attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese air superiority was on the margin relative to supporting their amphibious invasion of the Philippines. However, with the luck of the weather and their effective use of air power on 8 December and the days after, they were able to reduce the U.S. air and naval capabilities significantly. By late December 1941 U.S. naval and air force capabilities were unable to function and assist the U.S. Army elements in the defense of the Philippines. It was only a matter of time until the total capitulation of all U.S. forces in the Philippines. This underscores what happens when air and naval capabilities are removed in modern defensive warfare. By the same token, it demonstrates how important they are to ground warfare in any battle.

The Final Roll Call

John W. Starkey, age 86, of 1428 County Route 38, Norfolk, NY died on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, at Crouse-Irving Medical Center in Syracuse, NY. Survivors include his wife Peggy; children Lynn and Linda Starkey of Sandy, OR; Debra Starkey and Mrs. David Cesileonne de Fae Hofer of Cutback, MT; Mrs. Scott Polly Libby of Ashland, ME; Mrs. Rick Doris “Di” Scheussler of Kearney, NE; and 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

John Starkey was assigned to the Army Air Corps’ 440th Ordnance Company on Mindanao in the Philippines at the outset of World War II. He and several other Americans evaded capture by the Japanese and in December 1942 joined a local guerrilla movement in Cotabato province, which later became part of the Tenth Military District. Starkey was an active member of the group known as the American Guerrillas of Mindanao.

Born in White City, OK, he retired as a Major in 1961 and later worked as a security guard for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. in Alaska. At the time of his death Starkey was a communicant of the Church of the Visitation in Norfolk. He is buried at the Earth (Texas) Memorial Cemetery, where his parents and several siblings are also interred.


Ginger Hansen Holmes
President, AGOM Descendants Group
120 S. Cherry St.
Falls Church VA 22046
E-Mail: kvholmes@cox.net